Shavuot: The Torah of Tenacious Love
Shavuot, friends, is a holiday with many different meanings, and it’s important to recognize that Jewish tradition continues to gain meaning over the centuries and millennia. We don’t shed these traditions; we absorb and incorporate them into the way the holiday feels today. If we were living during the time of the Torah, what would we say Shavuot is about?
It is the holiday of harvesting, as the barley harvest happens around Shavuot. Climate change might affect this over the years, but in the ancient world, Shavuot always coincided with the barley harvest. This connection is biblically rooted in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the Book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuot. Ruth’s story involves meeting her future husband, Boaz, during the barley harvest, further linking the holiday to this season.
In modern times, Shavuot has also come to symbolize the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Interestingly, the Torah itself does not specify this connection. However, over time, we have combined these meanings, seeing Shavuot as a time to harvest what we have learned and show a willingness to receive again. Just as Ruth and Boaz fell in love during this season, it is a chance for us to renew our love for the Divine, as we stand at the base of the mountain and metaphorically marry God.
Our relationship with God, like any loving, healthy relationship, evolves over time, gaining new depths and meanings. Shavuot encapsulates these various aspects: harvesting the first crops, recovering from hardships, and receiving the Torah after enslavement. We hold all these meanings simultaneously, creating a rich tapestry of tradition and personal significance.
Ruth’s qualities, particularly her tenacity and loyalty, are qualities we are called to cultivate in ourselves. Ruth chose to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, declaring, “Where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live; your God is my God.” This tenacity, described by Torah scholar Aviva Zornberg as resembling a stickiness like glue, ensures that the possibilities of the future are manifest in every step she takes.
We are called to be tenacious people who channel love, to plant and harvest crops, find love again, and return to the mountain, symbolizing freedom and openness. When we gather as a community, we affirm our presence and commitment: “Here I am” (in Hebrew, “Hineni”). We are here, and like Ruth, we’re not going anywhere. We have so much love to share, and Torah teaches us how to build on that love and demand its reciprocity. It guides us on how to channel God’s love healthily, amplify good, care for ourselves, find community, and hope even in difficult times.
Shavuot is a time of receiving Torah again. If you believe in a theology of verticality, where God descends onto a mountain and we rise to meet, that is one way of experiencing revelation. However, there is also a theology of internality, where God within is always present, even if we can’t always feel it. By opening ourselves up, we allow God to flow out, returning us to a state of spiritual flow.
When we are in community, we recognize the Divine in each other, similar to the Buddhist concept of “namaste”: the God in me recognizes the God in you. This Shavuot, let’s open ourselves to the universe and let it flow through us. This is its own form of Torah and revelation.
May this holiday find you strengthened, loving, and ready to share your gifts with the world. May we all find hope, love, and strength, and return these gifts to our communities.
On this 249th day since October 7th, on this Erev Shavuot 5784, may we be hopeful, loving, strong, and ready to share the gifts within us.
May our People continue growing in strength and healing — and love.
Chag Sameach!